# Shelton (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/shelton/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 90,517 |
| US rank (2010) | 344 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 3,411 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.5% (88,326 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈʃɛltən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English scylfe (“deck, shelf”) + tun (“town”). Doublet of Skelton.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Shelton in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 73% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 21% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.2% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 2.5% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Shelton in the United States and the United Kingdom.

## People named Shelton

- Blake Shelton, American country music singer and television personality
- Marley Shelton, American actress
- Simon Shelton, British actor (1966-2018)
- Deborah Shelton, American actress and beauty queen
- Lynn Shelton, American filmmaker (1965–2020)
- Gilbert Shelton, American cartoonist
- Uriah Shelton, American actor and singer
- Ron Shelton, American film director
- Herbert M. Shelton, American medical writer (1895–1985)
- Bryan Shelton, American tennis coach and former player (born 1965)
- Samantha Shelton, American actress
- Lonnie Shelton, American basketball player (1955-2018)

and 4 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Sheldon, Shelden, Skelton, Slayton, Slaton, Scholten, Seldon, Slatton, Saldana, Sultana, Sultan, Saladino.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.